I don't do many posts about him because he gives young cartoonists the wrong idea, namely that there are no rules.

I would say that "There are no rules for someone with super talent, tons of skill and knowledge and control over his work, and a place (like Terrytoons) where breaking the rules is pretty much the only way to get the otherwise conservative nature of the studio to do anything entertaining." That's a lot of conditions!

Jim Tyer has great draftsmanship (drawing skill). He knows how things work, but then chooses to let his imagination take his knowledge and bend it to do highly amusing and inventive work. Sometimes with control too.

His rules don't apply to someone who is not already highly skilled and talented. I love the guy, but this post might explain why I don't promote him more often on my public blog.

I do in private to my super skilled cartoon peers.

We live in a world where skill and draftsmanship and professionalism has almost vanished, so I am trying help bring it back before we embark on pure unbridled creativity again. You have to learn to walk before you run as you've heard before.

I have a tape I made 12 years ago of a bunch of Tyer's funniest Terrytoons scenes all strung together in a row. If I can get it digitized, I'll put it up.

I love the effect that writing the narration directly in the frame has... am I the only one almost bored to tears by the text, though? Not the script I mean, but the way it's printed.. even the choice of punctuation, it makes this otherwise brilliantly lively comic just screech to a halt, over and over, for me.. is it just a matter of adjusting to how the typography was done back then?

I'm curious what 'rules' this is breaking though; I've only been following your blog for a couple of months, but it looks to me like everything is laid out nicely, lively movements... Is it just that the characters seem a little off-model in many of the frames?

"and my NEW brains too!" Haha, that made me laugh John! Reading the Bakshi book right now. When he's talking about working at Terrytoons and learning from his cartoon superiors he says, "They'd help the kids without fear of losing their jobs, unlike today. They also spread the word if you were getting better or not." That basically sums up your entire blog. You give away all this knowledge just bc you love it so much. Just wanted to say thanks again for sharing these pearls John. Keeps me drawing!

I used to wonder about all of the comic book artists who created work for the funny animal comics of the 50s and early 60s. So many of them seemed to work anonymously, yet so much of the work was top-notch. I still find it difficult to find out who some of these illustrators were.

Back when I was a collectibles dealer I was set up at a show in Fayetteville, NC (a hellish place, for sure). An older woman came to me and asked if I had any Paul Terry comics and I had, indeed, recently found a stash of such books. She bought them all and told me that she was Paul Terry's daughter, and that she had very few such things to remind her of her father's work.